Author's Note: Here's another story I've been working on as of lately. I have around 16k done of it at this point, out of a possible I don't even know. But this story was originally for the Big Bang challenge, but I got really stuck because the character's intentions weren't clear to me, but then I got an epiphany, and now this fic is just for fun. Anyways, please please leave a review if you read and enjoyed. It would really mean a lot to me! And enjoy!

warnings: character death, gore, sex, language, violence, uhm possibly more to come.

Ͼ scar·if·ication Ͽ

oo1: scars

Ɨ woke up with blood under my nails and animals slain before me. It has happened again. Another concussion following a night I had no remembrance of, and a pounding migraine to last for the entirety of that day. And of course, Braig had followed me, as per usual, there to warrant me with a pat on the back that I neither deserved nor wanted.

"Ha! Well done there. Looks like those animal instincts are really taking over." Again more of that bark he called a laugh, and I was already walking away, stepping over ripped-open corpses, making sure to carefully make my way around the entrails and innards.

The remnants were caked underneath my nails that had come forth like claws, and still had yet to return to their familiar state, and if I were to touch my teeth, I would have surely pricked myself on their sharp points.

What was happening to me? I had never been one for killing animals. I had a pet dog I supposed, but I awoke one day, just as today, to see it with its skull bent and bloody, and I had wept. Wept for her, I must have loved her, even if I didn't remember, wept for what I had done.

"Hey, where do you think you're going? You don't think you're going to go back looking like that do you?"

I looked down at myself, and knew he had a point. My shirt was splattered with fresh blood, as well as my trousers, and my feet, though bare, were covered in a mixture of mingling mud and blood. Surely I couldn't just head into town like this for all the people to gawk and stare. The sheriff no doubt coming to investigate.

But better a fate as than than to go anywhere with this man.

"How is it you always manage to find me?" I asked as I pushed my stringy, wet hair back away from my eyes. I was a complete mess. Covered head-to-toe with the innocent blood of those creatures.

I still could not wrap my mind around it. What had caused me to slay those deer, even the foal? To rip the wings from the owls that play actively under the moon. The rabbits I had feasted on like I was some sort of … beast. An animal, as Xigbar liked to constantly remind me.

"Heh, well the entire forest is reeking of blood, and with this nose," he pointed, "it wasn't too hard at all." He followed behind me, trotting a few steps to catch right up, and walk beside me, looking prepped and primed as if he had prepared beforehand for this moment. He even wore a suit, coat-tails long and hair slicked back into a ponytail that contradicted the scruff of his jaw, and the rough scar across his cheek.

"Let me re-phrase that: Why do you keep finding me?" I stopped and turned towards him once I realized that I really had no idea where it was I was going in the first place. And I supposed I could stall , and get a few answers out of him in the meantime as well.

"Gotta keep an eye on the new meat," he said, throwing me a wink with his good eye. I had always wondered what the eye patch was for, but I could only assume he had received it in conjunction with the scar.

I knew Xigbar wanted something from me, from the way he continued to make his appearance known whenever it was I had one of these episodes. And after leaving me with this hideous scar across my face, I had seen him around every corner, every turn. I had no moments to myself, no time to reflect on what it was that this scar meant for me, or what my life even was before that.

Lycanthropy.

I now craved the raw meat of the innocent animals of the forest. Rabbit meat, mice meat, and to feel their bones crushed between my jaw was a whole new thrill I had never imagined.

What was life like before all this? It was like my life had been completely erased when I woke up, with the throbbing red gash on the bridge of my nose. An 'X.' I remembered touching it, looking at in the water's edge of pond and realizing that I was marked for good.

Then Xigbar had come, smirking at me, telling me my old life was no longer, and if I knew what was good for me I would return with him. As any man would, confused and alone, I ran. Ran through the swamp-like woods in the rain, blood dripping onto my lashes, the copper in my mouth.

That may have not been the smartest choice, for when I awoke, my dog was dead. Bella, her collar read, and I thrashed my house in a fit of rage, most likely induced from the beast that ran violently through my veins.

I never returned home after that, and that was only a few nights ago. And here, Xigbar had found me again. There was no wonder why I hated him so. The word itself was a understatement.

He was what made me who I was becoming. And God, did I hate him for it.

"If you had not disfigured me, there would be no "new meat" for you to have to watch, now would there?" I quipped, rolling my eyes, and continuing on, climbing over fallen trees and passing torn stumps.

Surely I was not the one to have knocked these trees over, was I?

"I told you already, The Superior said I had to find a new pup." he said as he followed after me, already in front of me with a speed I knew his type was able to muster. Well...my type, if I really was being honest. But that was something I still was not ready to fully accept.

Besides, I was not one of them yet.

Xigbar's hands were always claws, sharp like daggers. A pair of wolf-like ears peeked out from his ear, steel-gray in color, the same shade as the gray hairs that mingled amongst the black. His eyes glowed a brilliant amber, a reflection of the full-moon that breathed life into his—our kind.

And yet my eyes were still the same familiar shade of green, and when the sun would rise above the horizon, I would once again be a human. No ears, no tail whipping behind me, and definitely no inconceivable urges that I couldn't seem to keep at bay.

A pup I was, but soon I would become a full-fledged wolf, and I had to wonder: why me?

"And why have you chosen me? What wrongs have I committed in life that warrant me worthy of such a horrific fate?" I asked, my lip sneering as I growled, purely animal, and I was a bit taken aback. I ran my hand over my face, the blood already dried so that to not coat my face.

"How many times do we have to go over this?" Xigbar asked as he rolled his eyes, inspecting his claws as if he was barely entertaining my questions."And please, horrific? Not by a long shot," his eyes darkened, his lips pulling back into a smirk, and I figured this life could only be fulfilling for someone who enjoyed the act of killing.

I didn't though. I knew I wasn't a killer. I couldn't have been one in my former life, and I wasn't willing to be one now.

"I do not believe your story," I said, eyes narrowed. "It must have been more than pure coincidence. Surely you had seen someone that you could have chosen, but it had to be me."

As the story goes, Xigbar had seen me walking, collecting wood one evening, and had claimed me right in that moment. He attacked me, and left me marred for life. I was just lucky his claws hadn't left me blind, I suppose, but did it have to be me? Why couldn't I have just been home, or taken a different route?

"As if I was going to mark that pot-bellied gramps I saw. You were the perfect candidate, Isa. You got all the bells and whistles going for you," he said as he lifted my arm and prodded at my chest. "Everything's in the right place," he continued and I pulled away from him angrily, a flash of instinct coursing through me that I did my best to ignore.

Without Xigbar, there would be no answers.

"Perfect candidate for what exactly?" I asked with a quirked brow. As of now, all I had heard him mention was a Superior. No inkling of an idea as to what his plans were for me, and maybe some part of me would prefer not to know. But I knew that I would go crazy without them, would go absolutely mad without some sort of guidance in this world that I had been thrust into. "I need answers."

"Hold your horses, Isa," he said, fueling my aggravation ten-fold as I realized tonight would be but another night that I was left alone in this madness. "Ya know, I do know someone who might have the answers you're looking for, that is, if you come with me," and he held out his hand, smirking, and even if I didn't trust Xigbar, even if I hated him dearly for what he had done to me...I had to know.

And so I took his hand, and stepped into the dark canopy of the forest to find out what it was that could be my fate.

A/N: Upcoming chapters should be longer, but this is just a taste of what's to come. Hope you enjoyed. Please leave a review, and hope to see you next time!